The Taming of the Drew

It’s a theater geek’s dream come true: playing Kate in The Taming of the Shrew in a summer stock theater production. Cass loves Shakespeare, she’s perfectly cast as the ornery and stubborn Kate, and disliking her Petruchio is no problem: Drew is arrogant and pedantic, and their first meeting involves a car crash. Anyone who knows the play or has read a hate-at-first-sight romance knows where this is going. Cass—18, and fully in touch with her inner brat—enlists her roommates (cute-as-pie Amy and hippyish Heidi) in a campaign to do to Drew what Petruchio does to Kate. Strohm (Confederates Don’t Wear Couture) can be funny, but her supporting characters are one-note and often seem to be eccentric for eccentricity’s sake—not just the theater directors, but also an unlikely band of hunky skateboarders who work at a nearby skate camp and speak in semi-incomprehensible slang. Although predictable, the happy ending is satisfying, as are the moments when Cass and Drew start to see beneath their prickly exteriors. Ages 12–up. Agent: Molly Ker Hawn, Bent Agency. (Apr.)